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Ohio’s homebuying squeeze puts teachers, firefighters and other workers further out of reach
A National Housing Conference report found that the share of Ohio occupations able to afford a typical home with 10% down fell from 67% in 2020 to 26% in 2025. Mansfield saw one of the state’s sharpest declines, as the income needed to buy a typical home more than doubled.
Ohio had the nation’s steepest decline in homeownership affordability from 2020 to 2025, according to a National Housing Conference report released this year. Across the state’s metropolitan areas, the number of occupations whose workers could afford a typical home with a 10% down payment fell nearly 41%.
In 2020, workers in 67% of occupations in Ohio could afford a typical home under the report’s measure. By 2025, that share had dropped to 26%. The report also found that the share of occupations able to afford a typical two-bedroom rental fell from 77% to 69% over the same period.
The figures point to a growing gap between housing costs and the wages of people who keep local communities running. “Home ownership is becoming a luxury in Ohio,” said Marcus Roth, a spokesperson for the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, citing examples such as firefighters and mail carriers being priced out.
Five Ohio metro areas — Mansfield, Cleveland, Springfield, Toledo and Akron — ranked among the 25 U.S. metro areas with the largest drops in homeownership affordability, the report found.
Mansfield had the steepest decline in Ohio. A typical home there cost $115,041 in 2020, when a buyer needed an annual income of $28,483 to qualify, according to the report. By 2025, the typical price had risen to $188,863 and the required income to $62,931 — a 121% increase.
In 2020, elementary and special education teachers, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, firefighters, and postal workers could afford a typical Mansfield home. Five years later, firefighters, postal workers, executive secretaries and loan officers could no longer afford one, the report said.
National Housing Conference President and CEO David M. Dworkin said that when essential workers cannot afford homes in the communities they serve, the consequences extend beyond housing to local workforces and economies. The average annual salary among occupations that lost the ability to buy a home with 10% down between 2020 and 2025 was $70,283, according to the report.
Renting is also becoming harder to afford. A full-time Ohio worker needs to earn at least $23.82 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment, according to a separate 2026 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Ohio Coalition on Homelessness and Housing. Ohio has a shortfall of 266,000 affordable and available rental homes, according to those organizations.
Roth said workers who cannot buy homes remain renters longer, adding to demand for rental housing and putting upward pressure on rents. Dworkin called for more homes priced within reach of the workforce, along with preserving existing housing, reducing unnecessary costs and delays, and coordinating housing policy across government levels.